Niek Sanders' Homepage

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Niek Sanders' Homepage

So this is my homepage. Exciting, isn't it? Across the top is a picture from my last Switzerland trip, near Zermat. It really should have a title written across it, but it's just too damn pretty to ruin with text.

9/29/2009
Prediction time: for the 2012 presidential election, Obama will dump Biden as his VP and pick Hillary Clinton instead.

Biden brought two things with him:

He was old/experienced
He was a white male

The old/experienced asset isn't relevant anymore for 2012. If Obama managed the first four years, one can assume he can handle four more. The white/male benefit also doesn't hold as much water; a non-white president is now less of a big deal for the conservative older folks.

While he no longer brings assets, he does bring liabilities in that he's somewhat of a bumbling moron. His penchant for putting his foot in his mouth gives plenty of political openings for opponents. Hillary, on the other hand, would re-energize Obama's base. Plus it would set up Hillary's presidential run for 2016, giving democrats a strong shot at maintaining the presidency post-Obama.

8/8/2009
I've been watching the Feynman Messenger lectures. The videos are excellent; definitely worth installing the required Silverlight plugin.

7/10/2009
Matlab's idea of pretty is a bit different than mine. I suppose they get some sort of cool points for using ASCII graphics though.

3/22/2009
"Maggots! Vermin! You want the world for nothing.
Commence your goveling.
Rotti, your king, is dying.
Even Rotti Largo cannot prevent this passing.
Who will inherit Geneco?
I'll keep those vultures guessing."

-- Repo! The Genetic Opera

3/17/2009

-- xkcd

1/4/2009
Finally updated the booklist again. I had a several month backlog of completed books. They were piled in a corner of my living room. I should have all of them in (more or less) the correct order.

12/15/2008
"[REDACTED] and the base commander sometimes economized on space by building the golf course in the antenna field." -- Thomas Johnson, American Cryptology during the Cold War, 1945-1989

12/1/2008
Read the NIC's Global Trends 2025 report. I think this crystal ball gazing will be as accurate as a "hot stock" picking article, but it does stimulate the imagination. Interestingly, it doesn't mention the US-internal problems of Social Security and Medicare, both of which go cash-flow negative around 2020. I guess the NIC didn't want to ruffle any political feathers.

9/7/2008
America's leftists have a great deal of pragmatism in regards to the human condition. Abstinence is fine, but realizing that many kids stray, they want contraceptives in the curriculum. Hard drugs are trouble, but there should be needle exchange programs to reduce harm to junkies. Yet somehow this same pragmatism does not carry over to war. Peace is a great ideal, but ultimately violent conflict, a fundamental part of our history and nature, always comes up. Peace can't be found through war protests. And in a world of petty dictatorships and corruption, don't expect miracles from a "world government" either.

8/20/2008
The initiative to return the drinking age to 18 is interesting. The current laws are both immoral and irrational. That said, I think the prohibitionists will win the day.

8/14/2008
Finished reading "The Winning Weapon", a book covering American atomic policy for the first five years after World War II. It's a fascinating look at a government reacting to a massive change in power dynamics. This also sets the stage for the ensuing Cold War. Book list updated accordingly.

8/5/2008
Book list updated.

8/3/2008
Took a tour of the USS Princeton on Saturday. Now I want a guided missile cruiser of my own.

7/30/2008
Cinematic greatness:

7/29/2008
"It is not like fencing, where the number of hits decides the victory: as long as the enemy is on his feet, you have to start over again; it is not a victory if it does not end the war." -- Montaigne

7/28/2008
Where are the protests through out the middle east now? Was all the non-Western indignation at Abu Ghraib just hypocrisy?

"Any dolt with half a brain,
can see that humankind has gone insane.
To the point where I don't know if I'll upset the status quo
if I throw poison in the water main."
-- Dr. Horrible, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

6/9/2008
Book list updated.

4/2/2008
I coded up an initial implementation (using a templated C++ class) of the RANSAC algorithm today. Once I get the code cleaned up and more thoroughly tested, I'll post it to the Coding Section.

4/1/2008
Last night, I finally got around to implementing the Boyer-Moore string searching algorithm. The original paper is pretty hard to decipher; a much better explanation is in the Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash.

The Coding Section holds my Boyer-Moore implementation.

3/31/2008
The site hosting the Geert Wilders film has removed the clip "following serious threats to our staff and their families."

3/28/2008
I watched the Geert Wilder's film yesterday. I think he fails to differentiate between Islamism (a warped ideology and a leading threat to the civilized world) and Islam as a whole. Sadly, I think that Islamism is a valid interpretation of the Koran, much like Christian literalists and the Bible, and not a "hijacking of Islam" as some western apologists like to claim.

3/25/2008
"The behavior of this function might seem outlandish and we might think that no self-respecting function would behave in this way. We may stand fast in this moral judgement for the present because we intend to ignore such functions..."
-- Morris Kline, Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach

And the joys of using Linux:

    [root@localhost usr]# cat tmp
    cat: tmp: Is a directory
    [root@localhost usr]# rmdir tmp
    rmdir: tmp: Not a directory
    [root@localhost usr]#

(and yes, it was actually a symlink).

3/22/2008
"Apparently, the difference between me and Paul Graham is that I *know* I'm full of crap. Well, that, and several million dollars."
       -- Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror Blog

3/19/2008
"As in the case of speed, it is often the instantaneous acceleration rather than the average acceleration that matters. Thus, if the brakes of an automobile are applied suddenly, the automobile suffers an instantaneous deceleration or a negative acceleration. Unfortunately, the passengers do not receive the same deceleration and they continue to move forward, often through the windshield of the automobile."
       -- Morris Kline, Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach

"Many think it possible to 'hang' a synchronous satellite over any point on the earth--Red China, for example. This is, unfortunately, not the case."
       -- Bate, Mueller, and White, Fundamentals of Astrodynamics

2/18/2008
The concept of civilians being off limits in warfare is a popular one. But how does that apply to a legitimate democracy? If the voters have the power, why should they be spared the consequences of their actions? There is a fundamental disconnect here between power and responsibility.

2/4/2008
Reasons I don't trust WaMu with my money:

WaMu took nearly two weeks to do simple ACH transfers. When I still regularly used WaMu back in the spring, their webpage didn't allow ACH transfers to be scheduled within 48 hours. That means having to wait at least three business days for the transfer to begin. Worse yet, WaMu then put a five business day hold on the cash, even when my credit union clearly showed it went out on the scheduled day of the transfer.
WaMu doesn't treat their employees with respect. The tellers at the Belltown (Seattle) branch don't get chairs. Instead, they have to stand at little podiums. There is no valid reason for this setup.
WaMu charged me $1 just for checking my balance via a competitor's ATM. I didn't withdraw money; I simply checked the balance in my checking account. When I got my statement, I noticed a one dollar 'ATM Inquiry Fee'.
WaMu spams me with horrible credit card offers. I used to get at least one advertisement a week for their crappy credit cards. The APRs, once out of the introductory period, are sky-high. The cards are loaded with tons of hefty fees. Worse yet, WaMu uses the two cycle billing scam to bilk more money from their customers.

WaMu acts like a tacky con artist, trying to scam customers with both absurd fees and dodgy products. This is not a company aiming to build wealth through a mutually beneficial relationship with its clients.

So why do I still have a WaMu account? I've demoted WaMu to being my quarters bitch. Come laundry day, I pick up $10 worth of quarters from their nearest branch. (I keep my balance around $20 now, instead of the $1500+ back in spring). They also get the dubious honor of receiving any incoming checks, which I then immediately transfer to EmigrantDirect, a bank that actually deserves trust.

1/22/2008
"One thing we didn't have to worry about in this war was enemy agents. With a good coat of paint, a Tauran might be able to disguise himself as an ambulatory mushroom. Bound to raise suspicions."
-- Joe Haldeman, The Forever War

1/18/2008
I'm moving to Ballard this month.

1/14/2008
"I'll cut your gizzard out!" -- skeleton, Army of Darkness.

"Have at you!" -- skeleton, Army of Darkness.

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